MITRE Board Chairman Honored by Air Force Association

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BEDFORD, Mass., and MCLEAN, Va., October 21, 2009 — The MITRE Corporation's Chairman of the Board, Dr. James R. Schlesinger, has received the Air Force Association's (AFA) Lifetime Achievement Award. Schlesinger, a former secretary of defense and the nation's first secretary of energy, accepted the honor on September 16 at ceremonies during the AFA's annual Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition in Oxon Hill, Md.

In addition to Schlesinger, the AFA Lifetime Achievement Award was also presented to two members of the Doolittle Raiders, the 80 airmen who flew the first bombing mission on Japan in WWII, and to three Tuskegee Airmen, who represented 994 African-American pilots and 14,000 support personnel credited with shooting down 110 enemy aircraft and three of the first four jet aircraft used in combat.

Presenters at the awards ceremony included Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Norton A. Schwartz, and the AFA's Chairman of the Board, Joseph Sutter. "These recognitions are reserved for significant professional excellence and major contributions to national defense. Our nation depends on innovative, dedicated professionals like these award recipients," said Sutter.

Schlesinger was secretary of defense from July 1973 to November 1975, before which he was director of Central Intelligence. In 1971, President Nixon selected him to become chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He has received numerous awards and medals during his distinguished career, including the National Security Medal, as well as five departmental and agency medals. Schlesinger has also served on many government commissions and advisory groups. Recently, he served as chairman of the Secretary's Task Force on Department of Defense Nuclear Weapons Management and as co-chair of the Defense Science Board Task Force on the Future of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He also chairs the advisory group on GPS for the PNT (positioning, navigation, and timing) Executive Committee. He is vice chairman of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. He has been chairman of MITRE's Board of Trustees since 1985.

About The MITRE Corporation

The MITRE Corporation (www.mitre.org) is a not-for-profit organization that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.

About the Air Force Association

AFA is a 501(C) (3), nonprofit organization promoting public understanding of aerospace power and the pivotal role it plays in the security of the nation. AFA has more than 200 chapters nationally and internationally representing more than 125,000 members. Visit AFA at http://www.afa.org.

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